You're not a Freak!
by Lordoftheghostking28
Summary: Seven year old Naruto gets lost on his way to the training grounds. When he runs into a strange boy who claims to be running away from his own village, what will he do? Become friends? Arrest him in the name of the Hokage? Strike an alliance? Rating jumps to T in chapter 2 for violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Haha, I should be filling out a FAFSA form and some scholarships. Anyway, I had another idea, which is never a good thing, and when your motivation to keep going on with school crap is less than zero, it doesn't help. Shit, I don't even know if I want to go to college anymore. **

**I'm tired, I'm done with everything, and I want to write. This is what ya'll get for now. Sorry for making you listen to me. **

_**ANYWAY**_**: this story is hopefully more than the half-baked idea I started with in 5****th**** hour a few days ago. Title subject to change, as when I started this, it was called, 'But What is It, Really?' and I hated it and it didn't make sense. Also, this is going to be a two-shot thing, but it really depends on how much time I have and how well I use it. No yaoi or parings, but if you squint and turn the fic on its side, you can see a lot of bromance sorta and my frustration at the government. **

**Also, everyone in this is around 7-8 years old. At least in this chapter, anyway.**

_**SUMMARY IN LENGTH**_**: ****(AU) Naruto finds a boy claiming to have run away in the forest. Will he arrest this trespasser in the name of the Hidden Leaf, or will they become unlikely friends? Of course, this strange boy has his share of secrets, just what exactly are they?**

**XxXxXxXx **

**CHAPTER 1**

…_The Village Hidden in the Leaves, 10 years ago…_

"So what do you really want to be when you grow up?"

The small blonde boy glanced up at the girl standing in front of him. "I told you, Sakura!" he insisted in a frustrated voice. "I'm gonna be the Hokage!"

"Not if I'm Hokage first!"

"I'll beat you with my ninja training!" the boy stood and dropped into a clumsy stance. "I'll fight you right now! I'm really trained! Believe it!"

Sakura sighed. "I'm not gonna fight you, Naruto! I was taught to never hit a girl!"

"I'm not a girl!" Naruto stomped his foot. "I don't even look like a girl! Neji has longer hair than me! _He's_ the girl!"

Sakura laughed. "Really? You should tell Ino that. She's the one who called you a girl in the first place!"

Naruto let out a roar of fury. Being the manly little bugger he was, he wouldn't just sit idly by and let that remark go. No, he had to defend his manliness. At all costs.

"I'll fight Ino, then!"

Sakura shrugged. "Ok, but she's gonna kick your butt. I think I saw her out at the training field, but you should wait—"

Naruto didn't waste a second in bolting toward the gate to leave the village. It was only a short trek to the training field…

…Or so he was told.

He technically wasn't allowed to leave the village yet. The older kids, the ones actually being trained to be shinobi, were lead in groups to the field to practice their jutsus usually every other day. They were always chaperoned by a senior ninja.

Ignoring Sakura's shouts for him to stop being a blockhead and come back, he darted out of the large gate doors and onto the beaten track. He had watched ninja leave the village to train before, so he knew where to go.

At least until he came to a split in the path, one way leading to a wider path, the other to a less-trodden one.

"Um…" Naruto hesitated and ran a hand through his messy hair. "Uh…"_ Maybe if I follow one path for a little and if it doesn't open up to the training field, I can turn around and take the other one!_

"Yeah, that's a good idea," he thought to himself. With an innocent grin, he began walking down the more worn path with the confidence of a much more skilled ninja. The cocky attitude quickly disappeared as the forest became denser and denser, the trail narrower and narrower until the footpath was completely invisible.

"Uh oh…!" he gulped. "Um…anyone there? I'm lost…!"

Of course, no one answered him. He turned completely around and started walking again, this time a little quicker than before, hoping to find the path he had so stupidly strayed from.

"Maybe I should have waited for Ino to come back…" Naruto muttered to himself. Almost as an afterthought, he added, "No, then that would make her think I was more like a girl. I'm a man. I go and meet my destiny head on. I don't wait for it to happen."

Ego boosted to sky-high levels again, he sighed in relief as he spotted the path. He took off at a run, following the twists and curves of the worn-away grass to a rather rickety old bridge—

…A bridge?

"There's no bridge back to the village!" Naruto wailed. "I'm lost! I'll never get to prove Sakura wrong and become the Hokage! I'll never get to prove to Ino I'm not a girl! And I'll never taste a delicious bowl of ramen ever again! I'll never—!"

His crying was abruptly stopped by a sound in a group of bushes nearby. Dropping into the shoddy fighting stance, he faced the direction of the sound. "W-who's there?"

No one answered.

"I'm warning you, I'm gonna be the future Hokage!" Naruto continued, "and when I am, I'll banish you!"

A stick snapped in the bush, and a rather confused squirrel tumbled out of it. Naruto quickly gave up the fighting stance, glad that no one had seen his overreaction.

Trying to rid the blush that was rising to his cheeks, he turned around and nearly ran face-first into someone hanging from a low-growing tree branch.

"Hi!"

"AAAHH!"

Naruto fell backward, spraining his wrist as he tried to cushion his fall. He had no weapons, what if this person was going to kill him? What if he was a bounty hunter who hunted those little ninjas with strange cat whiskers on their faces?

Naruto stared up at the boy that hung by his feet. He was grinning, a light blue glow surrounding his sandals.

_He…he's gotta be only a year older than me! And he can control his chakra so well_! Naruto momentarily forgot about the pain in his wrist as the boy jumped down, landing expertly on his feet and brushing a mop of bright blonde hair out of his eyes.

"W-who're you?" Naruto stuttered. "And how did you find me? I-I'll fight you!"

"Fight me, un?" the boy's cheerful expression faded. "Why?"

"B-because…" _Because you scared me? No, that wasn't a thing a Hokage would say. _ "Because you're trespassing!" _That sounded better_.

"I am?" The boy asked. "Oh, I'm sorry, un." He buried his hands in his pockets.

Naruto didn't know what to do next. He had gotten this far, and he was still intact. The strange ninja boy hadn't taken his head off with some strange jutsu yet. This was his moment to be a true leader and take a prisoner back to the Hidden Leaf Village!

"You're going to come with me!" Naruto said, standing up and crossing his arms. Even at his full height, he wasn't taller than the other boy.

"Are you arresting me?" the boy blinked.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I am! Believe it!" Naruto grabbed his arm. "You're a prisoner of the Village Hidden in the Leaves!"

The boy pulled out of his grasp. "No, un! You can't do that, yeah!" he began to stutter and add a strange sound after his sentences. "I just got away, un! I can't go back!"

"Why not?" Naruto asked.

The boy stared at the ground. "Because…I'm a freak, yeah."

"You're not that freaky." Naruto said._ Why was he saying this? This strange boy was a prisoner of war! The Hokage wasn't supposed to be giving reassurance to prisoners of war!_ "Look at me, see?"

Naruto traced the strange whisker-marks on his face. "I don't know why these are here or why I got 'em, but everyone seems to think that makes me a freak. You don't look that freaky. Except for your haircut. Do people think you're a girl, too?"

The boy stared at him for a moment. "…Sometimes." He admitted.

"I get called a girl all the time and I didn't even look like one!" Naruto said. "So, how about we be freaks together?"

"Like friends, un? But I thought you were arresting me."

Naruto thought for a few seconds. Here was a strange boy who looked like a girl out in the middle of nowhere, who looked perfectly fine (except for his haircut) and not like a freak. Was he escaping from something? And if so, it was Naruto's duty to make sure he wasn't recaptured. That would be the way of the Hokage.

He shook his head. "Nah."

"Really?" the boy looked a bit happier.

"Believe it!" Naruto grinned. "I'm not gonna arrest you anymore. I'm Naruto! What's your name?"

The boy hesitated a bit. "I'm Deidara, un."

"Wanna go back to my village with me? I won't arrest you."

Deidara shook his head. "No…Like I said, I'm a freak. If they see me, they won't hesitate to really arrest me, yeah."

"Why?" Naruto asked. "You look normal to me!"

Deidara glanced around the forest, as though checking to make sure no one was coming. "Want to see something cool, un?"

"Yeah!"

Deidara fished around for something in his pocket and held out a clenched fist. "Ready?"

"Yeah!" Naruto was practically bouncing with anticipation.

Deidara threw back his arm, launching something white into the air. The object spread tiny wings and drifted back down, where it landed on his head. Naruto poked at the seemingly magical creature that had taken to nesting on his new friend's head. "It's a bird…? Why is it squishy?"

"It's made of clay, un." Deidara said, stowing his hands in his pockets again. "I can make a lot of them…and other things, too. Dragons and bigger birds."

"That's _awesome_!"

"It is." Deidara nodded. "It's art, un."

"Is this why you'd be arrested?" Naruto lowered his voice. "Because you are so cool that you got kicked out of your village?"

"No…" Deidara reached up with a semi-closed fist and retrieved the tiny bird from his head. "It's how I make them, un. And what I do with them."

"How do you make them? I wanna know!" Naruto grinned. "Will you teach me? Will you?"

Deidara lowered his gaze to his feet. "I can't. I…I was born differently. So I can make these."

"What do you mean?"

Deidara uncurled his fist as the bird hopped up onto his arm. Set into the palm of his hand was a mouth, much like the one on his face except the lips were paler, almost nonexistent.

"See? This is why I'm a freak, un!" Deidara re-clenched his fist. "My village…they chased me out when they discovered them! I don't know why!"

"Why? I think it's cool!" Naruto pointed at Deidara's other hand, the one that was still buried in his pocket. "So you have _three_ mouths? Does your other hand have one too? Can you make a lot of birds at once and have a whole army of them?"

Deidara looked taken aback.

"I don't see how you're a freak! I think you're really cool!" Naruto grinned. "I got these dopy cat whiskers and you've got three mouths! That's way cooler than me!"

"I…un…" Deidara said in nearly a whisper. "Thank you, Naruto. But you've only seen half of it."

Without waiting for a response, he turned around and grabbed hold of the clay bird, throwing it at a nearby tree. With an incredibly loud explosion of tree bark and smoke, a gaping hole was left in the wood.

"They only see me as destruction, un. And maybe they were right. My art is made for destruction." Deidara said.

"Whoa…" Naruto looked shocked.

"Do you still like me now, even after what I've showed you, yeah?" Deidara's voice shook. "Or do you think I'm a freak too, un?"

"Can you blow things up in different colours?" Naruto was practically jumping up and down. "Can you do tiny explosions? Can you blow up an entire forest? Maybe then I can find my way out of here! You're cool, Deidara, believe it!"

**XxXxXxXx**

"So what happened to beating Ino up?" Sakura asked.

"I got distracted!" Naruto shoveled ramen into his mouth.

"Obviously. I heard you got lost, too."

"I did, but I got back!" he finished the last of the ramen. "Mmm! I love ramen! When I'm Hokage, I'm gonna make it a law that everyone has to eat ramen!"

Sakura made a face, but it luckily went unnoticed. "Why are you eating so fast, anyway?"

"I got places to be and people to see!" Naruto hopped down from the stool he was sitting on and ran toward the village's exit. "I'll be back soon!"

Sakura watched him go as he ducked around various ninja, shouting apologies as he went.

Naruto quickly left the village and turned down the path he had taken so many times before until he was at the bridge.

"Deidara! Wanna play?" he called. "I brought some clay for you so you can teach me how to make those cool birds!"

A muffled thump caught his attention and he turned, spotting his blonde friend as he stood from jumping out of a nearby tree. "I told you before, un. You won't be able to make it like I do."

"I can try!" Naruto insisted.

"Fine…" Deidara sighed.

The two of them sat facing each other, Deidara trying in vain to explain how the clay was like fine art and you had to find the bird within the clay to set it free. Naruto soon lost interest in it and made his own 'art', throwing the shreds of clay into the air and making lame explosion noises as Deidara shouted, "That is not art, un!"

Despite their short attention spans, they both knew that this friendship would last a long time.

**XxXxXxXx**

**Lame chapter ending is lame. Pt. 2 coming soon as soon as I fill out these FAFSA forms.**

**Remember to review, please! I am in dire need of motivation!**

**Hasta la Vista, Readers!**

**Lordoftheghostking28**


	2. Chapter 2

**EDIT: Re-uploaded because for some reason, an entire paragraph didn't print and it threw off the rest of the story. **

* * *

**WELL, I did taxes. And some scholarship crap. And then the army called and tried to recruit me. Why. Why does this happen. I just want to write for an hour without being interrupted.**

_**~THIS PART OF THE STORY RATED T FOR VIOLENCE AND BLOOD!~**_

**Oh, also everything **_**in italics**_** is a flashback.**

**Enough of that; here's part 2, chapter 2 of '**_**You're Not a Freak!**_**'**

**CHAPTER 2**

**XxXxXxXx**

Outside the Village Hidden in the Leaves, 10 years later

It really didn't seem that long ago that the two blondes were playing together in the forest, teaching each other about their views on art or ramen. Naruto stood, facing the skeleton of the bridge that had been slowly rotting away for the past decade.

…

"_Naruto, un! Teach me how to use this!" _

_Naruto laughed. "That's not how you hold a kunai, Deidara! Like this!" He took the weapon from his friend and held it the proper way, dropping into a modified fighting stance as he did so for added effect. "The way you were holding it, you could cut yourself!"_

"_You fight with these all the time?" Deidara asked, gesturing to the kunai. "I don't like those, un. You can't mold them." _

"_You get used to them after a while. Kakashi Sensei taught me." Naruto replied. "He's the best sensei ever! You'd like him! Come on, Deidara, come back to the village with me! If he can teach me how to be a good ninja, he can teach you!"_

…

Naruto turned at the rustling sound behind him. It sounded like fabric, as though a cloak had snagged on a bush. He gripped the kunai in his hand, warily turning to face the opposite direction. He did not want to engage in the next portion of the meeting.

Standing against the base of a tree was Deidara.

…

_It seemed like only yesterday that they had met, instead of five years ago. Every day since their first encounter, Naruto tried to bring Deidara back to the Hidden Leaf Village. Every time, he failed. Deidara had resorted to living in the forest, enraptured with the 'art' it produced. They still met, daily at first, then once every week as Naruto's training began._

_But nothing good was eternal, as Deidara said. Art was fleeting, as were good moments. Nothing lasts forever, no matter how hard you try and preserve it. _

"_Deidara," Naruto started one day. The two of them were sitting with their backs to a tree, watching travelers as they crossed the bridge from their place of safety. "You haven't been talking much lately. Is something wrong?"_

_Deidara sighed. "No, un. Don't worry about it."_

"_You're my friend!" Naruto protested. "I have to worry about you! As the future Hokage, I declare it a law!"_

_Deidara didn't return his friend's passion. "I…I'm going to have to go away soon, un." _

"_What?" Naruto blinked. "Go away? Where?"_

"_I lost a battle." Deidara admitted. "My art wasn't very good, yeah. My challenger…he said if he won, I was to join this…this weird organization, un. And he beat me. He said I have a week to prepare myself before he came to get me."_

"_Come back to the village with me!" Naruto insisted. "He can't get you there!"_

_Deidara didn't respond for the longest time._

…

Deidara wore a black cloak with red clouds stitched into the fabric. The once innocent and childish look in his light blue eyes was gone now, replaced with something cold and hard.

"Deidara…" Naruto started. "How've you been?"

His former friend heaved a sigh. "It's been five years, un. You haven't changed a bit."

"I got taller." Naruto shrugged.

Deidara nervously dropped into a ragged fighting stance, brushing his blonde hair out of his eyes. "You know why I'm here, don't you?"

"You've come to arrest me?"

Deidara dropped his gaze to the ground and reached into a pouch at his side, drawing out a handful of clay. "I wish it were that easy, un."

"You don't have to do this." Naruto said. "We can stage your death…make it look like I killed you. You can leave the Akatsuki!"

"I can't," Deidara opposed, "Leader-sama will know. He always knows. I can't fake my death, un. There's only one outcome to this, yeah."

"And what's that?" Naruto asked.

"You kill me." Deidara said, his left hand spitting out a small, clay bird. "Just… make it look like a fight, un."

…

_He had waited three years to see his friend again._

"_What's with the cloak?" Naruto asked, swinging his feet off the branch he was sitting on. "I haven't seen you in ages!"_

"_Yeah…" Deidara gave a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. The black cloak he was wearing came down past his knees, red clouds stitched into it in seemingly random spots. _

"_So that's this organization thing you're all caught up in now? Is it fun?"_

_Deidara nodded. "It's alright, I suppose. It's called Akatsuki."_

"_Cool! So what do you do?"_

"_Can you keep a secret, un?"_

_Naruto jumped off the branch and stood beside his friend, happy to see that he was nearing his height. "Yeah, believe it!"_

"_We're hunting things." Deidara said in a low voice. "Things called the 'Tailed-Beasts', un. Leader-sama says that when we have all of them, we'll be able to fix the world! No one else will call me a freak anymore, yeah!"_

"_Whoa!" Naruto's eyes grew wide. "Really?"_

"_Really!" Deidara insisted. "Then I'd be able to go into my village again! I told Leader-sama that I'd get as many of the Tailed-Beasts as I can! I'll be the best Akatsuki member he's ever seen, yeah!"_

"_Can I join?" Naruto asked. "I want to help! Can I get a cool cloak too?"_

_Deidara shook his head. "You have to be invited by the Akatsuki in order to be considered, un."_

"_Well, you're part of Akatsuki! Can you invite me?"_

_Deidara laughed. "No…I wish I could, though. It's up to the senior members."_

_Naruto huffed a sigh._

…

"I'm not going to kill you." Naruto said.

"You have to." Deidara said. "There's no way I'm going to kill you instead, un. You know what you have locked inside of you. If Leader-sama gets ahold of it…"

Naruto hesitated.

"You have no other choice, un. I can't return to base empty-handed again. I've upset Leader-sama too many times…" Deidara clenched his fist, smothering the clay bird he had created. An air pocket inside of it burst, creating an artificial wailing sound as its 'life' was snuffed out. "One more failure, and he'll kill me himself, un. I want to at least die at the hands of my friend."

Naruto stood straight, making no move to fight. "I can't do that, Deidara."

"And why not, un?" Deidara's hand was shaking, the smashed clay in his hand breaking off into pieces and falling to the ground.

Naruto let out a nervous chuckle. His giggling escalated into hysterical laughter that actually pained him. He put a hand against the nearest tree to steady himself.

"What's so funny?!" Deidara shouted.

"It's…it's just…" Naruto gasped. "When we were kids…you thought _you_ were the freak…!"

He gulped back another round of painful laughter. "My dad sealed the Nine-Tails into me to protect everyone. If that doesn't qualify me as a freak, I don't know what does. The Akatsuki are after freaks like me. If I hadn't gotten lost on my way to the training field that day, this would be a lot easier for both of us."

"You're not a freak, un." Deidara blurted. The angry expression was still on his face.

"I'm a freak wanted by the most feared criminal organization in the world."

…

"_Akatsuki?" Kakashi-Sensei asked, still never averting his eye from the book he was reading. Naruto strained to read the back cover. 'Make-Out Tactics'…?_

"_Yeah. What are they?"_

"_How did you hear about this?" Kakashi continued._

"_Oh…! Well, Ino and Sakura were talking about it earlier…and Saskue," he lied._

"_Were they, now?" Kakashi set the book down and stared at his student. "I'll have to have a word with them later. Now, as for your question…The Akatsuki is a criminal organization."_

"_What kind? Like thieves?" Naruto inquired._

"_Much worse than thieves. They've been known to level entire villages." Kakashi tucked the book into a side pocket. "What their intention is as of now, it's unclear. Some say they're hunting these creatures known as Tailed-Beasts. Some even deny the Akatsuki exists."_

"_Oh…" Naruto, for the first time in his life, became quiet._

…

"Naruto, un." Deidara's angry expression began to turn to one of desperation. "Fight me!"

Naruto crossed his arms. "No matter what you say, I won't kill you!"

"They're targeting the Village Hidden in the Sand next!" Deidara's voice rose. "There's another Jinchuriki there…Gaara! After I'm done with you, I'm supposed to retrieve him, un! When you are both dead, we'll be two steps closer to having all the Tailed-Beasts! We'll be after the Eight-Tails next!"

Naruto blinked. _Gaara? Gaara was a Jinchuriki? _

"I know that Gaara is your friend, un." Deidara continued. "If you want to protect him and the world, you have to kill me now!"

Without waiting for a response, he threw a fistful of unformed clay at the Hidden Leaf ninja, where it exploded on contact. Naruto was thrown quite a distance away, his journey through the air only stopped when his back collided with a tree. The air was knocked out of his lungs, leaving him gasping for breath.

Deidara was approaching him again, his face twisted into a mask of fear and anger. Another ball of clay was in his hands, this one shaped like a large snake.

Naruto acted on instinct, waiting until the Akatsuki member was within range before springing up and propelling himself forward. "_RASENGAN_!"

The blue-green chakra collided with Deidara's midsection, throwing him backward and causing him to drop his clay snake. The creature, only half-formed, writhed on the ground before going still, its blank eyes fixed on Naruto.

"_KATSU_!"

The snake exploded, the shockwave driving Naruto backward. His sense of balance was gone. Was he still flying through the air? Everything was white…

Something took hold of his leg. Naruto barely had a chance to react as whatever it was threw him up—or was it down?—and into the leaves of a tree. Confused and slightly alarmed, he performed a few signs with his hands, shouting out, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

At least twenty clones appeared at his sides as his ascension into the air began to slow and reverse. His vision was coming back now, except for the dark splotches obscuring most of his vision. Locating Deidara out of the corner of his eye, he sent the clones after him.

His former friend began throwing a collection of tiny birds at the clones, knocking them away and out one by one in fluid, practiced movements. Naruto took that opportunity to land back on the ground a bit harder than he had intended and gather his bearings.

"You've gotten good, un." Deidara remarked.

"The snake is new," Naruto huffed. "And the…the little birds." Damn it, he was already out of breath!

"There's more where that came from, yeah." Deidara threw another glob of clay at Naruto.

The Leaf ninja ducked and rolled, watching as the ball uncurled eight tiny legs and began skittering toward him. Distracted by the rather large spider, Deidara took that opportunity to land a clay butterfly, its wings as thin as paper, on his shoulder.

With a deafening, ringing explosion, it detonated. Naruto screamed and clutched the right side of his face, his burned skin knitting itself to his hand. He could feel blood seeping from his ear…and everything was silent…

Naruto grabbed a kunai from his belt, squinting around the battlefield. Deidara was still standing where he had last saw him. The expression on his face looked—sorry? It was hard to tell through the blur that overtook Naruto's sight…

Naruto threw the kunai just as hearing was being restored to his left ear in a loud ringing. Deidara didn't move. He only watched as the kunai buried itself into his chest, staggering slightly from the impact. It wasn't a fatal wound…

"You…! You…!" Naruto was beginning to hear himself again. "Why, Deidara? _Why_?"

"I'm sorry to make you mad, un." Deidara said, staring at the kunai imbedded in his flesh as though it was just an illusion. Naruto could barely hear him.

"Don't…don't let him take over!" Naruto fell to his knees, trying to fight the rising anger and fury that was rising in his chest. "The Nine-Tails…! If I…"

Deidara swayed on his feet. "I'm sorry…"

Naruto pressed his right hand to his head a bit tighter, struggling to stand. His balance was completely gone…

"You've told me how Sakura is a great healer." Deidara was saying. "She'll be able to fix your ear. Don't worry, un."

Naruto attempted to stand again, instead feeling something pressing onto his shoulder. "Wha…?"

"Don't move, Naruto!" a familiar voice said.

Naruto's stomach dropped. "_Sakura_?!" Speak of the devil…

"She's right." Said another voice. Naruto fought to look to the left, where Kakashi-Sensei stood, two kunais gripped in his hands. "You've done enough."

"Kakashi! Sakura!" Naruto shouted. "Don't kill him! Don't—!"

"That is a member of the Akatsuki!" Sakura stated the obvious. "He's going to _kill_ you!" She pried his hand away from his face, assessing the damage done.

Deidara swayed again. The front of his cloak was becoming weighed down with blood. He met Naruto's gaze and offered a small smile, one that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Kakashi was asking.

"I'm Deidara," Deidara simply said. He stepped backward, nearly losing his balance.

"Well, Deidara, I'm afraid I can't let you continue on." Kakashi said. "I'll give you one chance to surrender. We can heal your wounds and make sure you are properly taken care of."

"I don't want your care, un." Deidara said.

"No? Then have it your way." Kakashi moved with surprising speed, running at the Akatsuki member. His fist was engulfed in chakra-induced electricity as he neared his opponent.

"Lightning Blade!"

"No!" Naruto tried to pull away from Sakura, who only gripped his arm tighter and forced him to stay rooted to the spot. Her healing jutsu was working, however slowly.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked.

"He's my friend!" Naruto shouted. "Don't kill him! Kakashi-Sensei! Don't kill him!"

Deidara had fallen face-forward, driving the kunai deeper into his chest. He tried to move, only succeeding in rolling himself over onto his side. The once green grass was now stained red.

"Kakashi-Sensei!"

With a painful popping, his hearing returned to his destroyed ear. Naruto clutched at the side of his head, stunned by the sudden agony.

"Relax, Naruto. You're…you're just confused…" Sakura didn't sound so sure.

"_Kakashi-Sensei_!" Naruto broke away from her grip and ran toward his mentor. "_Don't kill him_!"

…

_Akatsuki was evil? But why had Deidara joined it? Had he known?_

_A million questions flew through Naruto's mind, but he pushed them aside. No, Deidara would know if it was evil. There wasn't any way he would join a freak organization. They were the real freaks, not him. _

…

Kakashi cast Naruto a glance. "Naruto, you are injured." He said in a calm voice. "Sit down. Let Sakura tend to you."

Deidara uttered a hoarse gasping sound.

"What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked him. "Why is the Akatsuki suddenly targeting Naruto?"

Deidara choked, blood beginning to curl out of the corner of his mouth. "N-Nine-Tails…"

"Nine-Tails?"

"Don't kill him!"

Kakashi ignored Naruto this time, instead focusing on something just beyond the battleground.

…

_But the way Deidara had made the Akatsuki sound…they sounded so nice. They wanted to get a jutsu so powerful they could stop all the madness in the world. That didn't seem like such a bad thing…_

…

A silver-haired man stepped out from between two trees. He was wearing a cloak similar to Deidara's, minus the entire left sleeve. He was carrying a large, three bladed scythe and an insane look on his face.

"Leader sent me with a little present, Deidara!" he said happily, as though delivering long-awaited news. "It's from Sasori! See, he doesn't want you spilling all our secrets!"

Sakura was standing now, glaring at the newcomer. "Who are you?"

"Relax, I'm not here to fight! Not today, anyway." The man said, extending his arms in a sign of peace. One of his hands was wrapped tightly around something. He set the scythe on the ground. "Leader forbade me. I'm only here to finish something."

"H…Hidan…!" Deidara choked, struggling to lift himself up enough to stare him down. "I d-don't need your help…"

"I'm not here to give you help, Deidara-chan!" Hidan looked absolutely ecstatic as he uncurled his fist. Sitting in his palm was what looked like a dart; a dart covered in something dark purple.

Deidara's eyes widened slightly at the sight. "Sasori-danna w-wouldn't…"

"Oh, but he did!" Hidan grinned widely, like an animal. "You're going to die, freak!"

"No!" Naruto shouted. He could only watch as Hidan threw the small dart at his friend…watching it curve down and imbed itself in his arm.

Deidara's eyes dilated as the purple poison began to seep into his bloodstream. Kakashi pulled the tiny dart out as quickly as he could, but it was much too late.

"Sakura!" The Sensei shouted as Hidan laughed, retreating into the forest.

As soon as Sakura let go of Naruto, he was running toward Deidara, skidding on his knees beside him. With a bit of difficulty, he managed to roll the Akatsuki member onto his back.

"Deidara…!" Naruto gently shook his friend's shoulder. "_Deidara_…!"

He didn't respond. His eyes were blank and clouded, staring up at nothing. A blue tinge had taken over his face, and blood bubbled from his lips.

"Kakashi-Sensei…" Sakura said in nearly a whisper, "there's nothing…nothing I can do…He needs the antidote…"

Kakashi knelt beside her, expressionless. "Naruto, you said you knew him?"

"_Deidara_…" Naruto shook him again, getting no response. A slight shudder ran through Deidara's body, and then nothing else.

…

"_Art is fleeting, un. It is a single moment of beauty that you remember forever. Kind of like life."_

"_Life is the longest thing you ever do." Naruto countered. "Even if you say you have a short life, it really isn't all that short. It's the longest thing ever."_

"_Shut up, un. You're ruining mine."_

"_What, your life?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Take that back!" Naruto shouted as Deidara quickly retreated to the nearest climbing tree. "I'll fight you!"_

"_Your fights only last as long as my art!"_

**XxXxXxXx**

**Lame ending is lame again. I was sad because I had to kill my favourite character.**

**Yeah, so that's that. No more. That's the end. Seriously.**

**Now please, please, PLEASE leave a review. Those really motivate me and I know a couple of you are reading this. **

**I also hope those guest appearances of Kakashi, Sakura, and Hidan made you happy. I don't know if you caught this, but I hate Sakura. A lot. But I think I hate Saskue more. Whatever.**

**Remember to Review!**

**Hasta la Vista, Readers!**

**Lordoftheghostking28**


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